The Eastern Congo 



Length of tail (without hairs), 4 feet y^ inches. 



Diameter of ear, 4 feet 8 inches. 



Circumference of fore-foot, 4 feet 5 inches. 



Diameter of hind-foot, i foot 8 inches.] 



After this, the first incisions in the skin were commenced. 

 Starting from below the tip of the trunk a cut was first carried 

 through the centre of the lip, along the medial line of the 

 belly to the end of the tail. Then, others at the back of each 

 leg, joining up with it in the same way as any other animal 

 is skinned. The flaps of skin beneath each leg and around 

 the chest were then negotiated, leaving the muscles exposed, 

 which in the case of the two uppermost legs, were removed, 

 leaving the bones clear and ready to be severed at the joints. 

 After the axe had done its work, I now had the two leg skins 

 with feet attached thrown over the animal's back, and the 

 remainder of the entire skin off one side soon followed. We 

 were " hung up " a long time upon the skinning of the head 

 which proved a very difficult task, the parts round the jaw 

 and face proving the worst.* 



By now, we were well on into the second day of our task 

 with what appeared to be a sickly white monster lying before 

 us, the stomach extended to a huge size with the ferment 

 within. The exposed stomach, meat, leg bones and ribs had 

 now to be removed, to enable the carcass (which weighed 



* As most observant elephant-hunters know, the elephant has a gland 

 on each temple which exudes a fatty oil through a small aperture in the skin. 

 It is, however, not generally known that almost always, without exception, thia 

 pieces of stick about one inch long are to be found embedded in these openings. 

 How to account for the invariable presence of these pieces of stick in both glands 

 remains a mystery, yet to be solved ; it is hard to beheve that they come there 

 by accident when the animal pushes through the branches of trees for instance. 

 The natives wUl tell you that the elephant puts them there himself : perhaps they 

 are right I I have always found the pieces of stick to be of nearly equal length 

 and size and never more than ij inches long. 



234 



